Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes GPS: Garmin vs. Lowrance

Thanks Greg, Richard, Haag, et.al. I hadn't thought of the Garmin III...

I'll look at that too. I saw several Garmin 295s on eBay last week.

Wallace

You will love the Airmap 500. So easy to use, lots of great features that you will find in higher-end units like the Garmin 196. I love mine! Easy to use! I picked it up at Oshkosh for $400 bucks. I bet they are even cheaper now. If you're into the big screen, the Airmap 1000 is a good value too, just big.

The reason so many Garmin 295's are being sold used is because the 296 is so vastly superior. Personally, I'd rather have a 196 than a 295, the color is nothing special until you move up to a 296 which displays terrain, which in my view is an extremely valuable feature, pun intended.

I don't have a 296, but I've flown with one, and it rocks.

Other than the 296's terrain feature, (which comes at a stiff price) I would be just as happy with any of the Lowrance units, they are excellent, as is the 196 and the two new smaller Garmins ( don't have those model numbers on the tip of my tongue.)

There is also a new AV Map unit which looks very good (smaller than the lap size models from AV Map) I'll post a link to that tommorow when I have time to look it up. (It's 12:35 am, been outta town for the weekend, and needed a quick forum fix before calling it a day.)

ive got the garmin gpsmap 196 and love it. the new features of the gpsmap 296 would only make it better. have you looked for used 196s?

Ok, here's a link to the new AV Map GPS at Sportys.

I agree with Greg, I also have a 196, and it is very very good, but clearly the 296 is better (as it should be for $900 extra)

By the way, a year ago 196's were going for a cool $1,000, now they are down to around $800.

Thanks for all the feedback. I ended up getting a Garmin III. It seemed like a decent compromise in terms of price and features. I got one on eBay for $290 plus shipping, then $35 for a Jeppeson update. It also fits well in the plane. The Garmin III has actually been discontinued new by Garmin, but they claim they will continue to support it.

Wallace

You'll like that Pilot III, great little GPS! Tons of features!I haven't reset my odometer since I bought mine, it's about up to 40,000 miles!

So far, so good. I've reset the odometer a couple of times just playing with it, but I'll let it roll now!

Does the backlight work well enough for you to see it at night?

Wallace

The back light works great! I leave it on the lowest setting for regular night flying. Around dusk I think the brightest works best. The light will drink the batteries quickly, so get the cigarette cord...it'll pay for itself in no time!

Unfortunately, the cigarette lighter was taken out of my airplane by a previous owner. I have to see what it would take ($) to get it put back in... Someone told me there was an AD on the cig lighters at some point and that's probably why it was pulled.

Wally